Putting Out the Fleece, Part 5: Walk in the Light You Already Have

The hour is late. The night is dark. You are many miles from your home and eager to get there. You climb in your car and turn the key, relieved to hear the engine roar to life. You switch on the headlights, and you have a problem.

The lights are working, but they only illuminate the next few hundred feet of the road that takes you home! The remaining miles between you and home are still blanketed in darkness. How will you make it home without winding up in a ditch?

You begin to drive, and something wonderful happens. Once you travel across the clearly illuminated stretch of road, you can now see the next stretch. And then the next. And the next. You drive in the light you have, across what you can clearly see, until at last the lights fall on the welcome sight of your driveway. You made it!

That silly scenario illustrates an important principle for discerning God’s will in our lives:

Principle #4 – Walk in the light you already have.

John’s Gospel (chapter 7) describes a skirmish in the ongoing battle between Jesus and the Jewish religious elite. The people are debating whether Jesus is the Messiah or an imposter. They can’t figure out how He could teach with such power when He had not formally studied in their schools. In so many words, they are asking, “How can we know whether Jesus is from God? How can we know whether we should commit our lives to follow Jesus?” (v. 12-15)

Jesus answered them, “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.” In other words, do what you already know to do if you want God to show you what to do next! He continued, “Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law.”

God has clearly revealed His will in the Scripture. He wants us to become like His Son, the Lord Jesus (Rom. 8:29). You are to be becoming God’s kind of husband/father, God’s kind of wife/mother, God’s kind of employee, etc. The Bible is filled with instruction for exactly what God expects in each of these areas.

So, the question to ask myself as I’m trying to figure out the future is a question about the present. Are there any areas of known disobedience to God’s clear commands in my life right now? If so, I need to stop worrying about the future and drive in the light I have. Get busy becoming obedient to whatever that next step is that God has shown you.